Rolling out a meeting notetaker to a small team

Skipping them does not usually cause a disaster; it causes a slow drift where some people record everything, some record nothing, and nobody can say where the recordings are.

This guide covers each decision for a team of roughly 5 to 50 people, without a dedicated security or legal function.

1. Agree a recording policy

Write one page. It should answer:

• When recording is allowed, and when it is not. Many teams exclude 1:1s about performance, HR matters and anything someone asks to keep off the record.
• How people are told. At the start of every recorded meeting, out loud, and in the invite for external meetings.
• What happens when someone says no. The meeting goes ahead unrecorded, without discussion.
• Retention for audio, transcripts and notes — usually shortest for audio.
• Who can see what. Recordings kept by the person who made them; notes shared in the agreed place.
• AI notes. Whether they may be used, and that they are checked before being shared or acted on.
• Voice recognition. Off, unless there is a reason and the people concerned have been told.

Writing a meeting recording policy for your team has a template. Recording law and data protection law both apply, and the rules differ between places; if your team works across countries, use the stricter rule.

2. Run a short security review

You do not need a formal questionnaire for a small team, but you do need answers to a handful of questions, in writing, from the vendor's documentation or from the vendor directly.

Where does meeting audio go? expands these into a checklist with the answers you should expect.

Also check the laptops. If the notetaker keeps recordings on the device, the device's disk encryption and your team's rules about lost laptops are now part of the notetaker's security.

3. Decide what clients are told

If your team talks to clients, they need a consistent answer:

• In engagement terms: that calls may be recorded for notes, where recordings are kept, whether any AI service receives transcripts, and how long each is kept.
• At the start of each call: "We record our calls for notes. Is that all right?"
• When a client says no: the call goes ahead unrecorded, and the client's preference is noted so nobody asks again.

Some client contracts restrict subprocessors or recording outright. Check before the first recorded call, not after.

4. Pilot before switching everyone

Pick two or three people who have different kinds of meeting — someone client-facing, someone internal, someone who runs many interviews — and have them use the tool for two to four weeks under the policy. At the end, ask:

• Were the transcripts good enough to write notes from?
• Did anyone forget to tell people they were recording? Why?
• Where did notes end up? Could colleagues find them?
• Did any client object, and how did it go?
• Did the policy need changing?

Change the policy, then roll out to everyone with the policy attached.

Sharing notes across the team

A notetaker changes who has notes, not necessarily who sees them. Agree where notes go for each kind of meeting — the project wiki, the channel, the CRM — so the tool does not become a private archive only one person can search. Sharing meeting notes with your team covers what to share and what to keep back.

How Notey fits a team

Notey is a Mac app that records each person's microphone and what their Mac plays as two separate tracks and transcribes them on that Mac. It is a personal tool, and it is worth being exact about what that means for a team.

What each person gets:

• Recording, transcription and search on their own Mac, with no account and no network needed. Nothing joins the call.
• AI notes — summary and action items, minutes, a follow-up email, tough questions, where the two sides differed — when they ask, with an account and a plan. Only transcript text is sent, to Notey's service and on to OpenAI as a processor, not used for training and not retained by Notey. Everything the AI wrote is labelled.
• A red dot and elapsed timer on their screen while audio is kept, visible to them and not to the call.

What the Team plan is: one bill for several people's AI notes, priced per seat with a five-seat minimum and 100 hours of AI notes each. Current prices are on the pricing section.

What it is not: a shared workspace. There is no team library, no admin console that can read people's meetings, and no integration with Slack, wikis or CRMs. Each person's meetings stay on their Mac; they share notes by exporting Markdown.

For the security review: audio is written to the Mac and transcribed there; no transcription service receives it. The only thing sent anywhere is transcript text when someone asks for AI notes, and an email address for anyone who makes an account. Optional sync between a person's own Macs is encrypted on the Mac with a key only that person's Macs hold, and recordings stay on the Mac that made them; they are never uploaded, encrypted or not. The privacy policy sets this out. Notey holds no SOC 2 or HIPAA certification.

Requirements: Apple silicon Macs with macOS 26 or later. If some of your team use Windows or Intel Macs, Notey will not work for them.

For a consultancy rolling out a notetaker to client-facing staff, AI meeting notes for consultants covers the per-call workflow each person follows.

Frequently asked questions

What should a small team decide before using an AI notetaker?

When recording is allowed, how people are told, how long audio, transcripts and notes are kept, which vendors receive what, and where notes are shared. Write it on one page before anyone starts recording.

Do we need a security review for a notetaker?

If the notetaker receives client or employee conversations, yes, even a short one. Ask where audio is transcribed, what is stored and where, who the subprocessors are, whether data is used for training, and how deletion works. Get the answers in writing.

Should we tell clients we use an AI notetaker?

Yes. Tell them in your engagement terms and at the start of each recorded call, and say what happens to the recording and the notes. Some clients will say no; your policy should say what happens then.

Does Notey's Team plan let us share notes?

No. The Team plan is one bill for several people's AI notes. Each person's meetings stay on their own Mac, and notes are shared by exporting Markdown.